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Last Update: 07-Jul-2006

Cancun Negotiating Deadlines

After the 2001 Doha Ministerial Conference (in process)

"Single undertaking" negotiations on:

  • Implementation (Ministerial Declaration para. 13).
  • Agriculture (Ministerial Declaration para. 13).
  • Services (Ministerial Declaration para. 15).
  • Industrial tariffs (Ministerial Declaration para. 16).
  • Subsidies (clarifying and improving existing disciplines, including fisheries subsidies; Ministerial Declaration para. 28).
  • Anti-dumping (clarifying and improving existing disciplines; Ministerial Declaration para. 29).
  • Regional trade agreements (clarifying and improving existing disciplines, Ministerial Declaration para. 29).
  • Environment (WTO/MEA relationship; information exchange between the WTO and MEA Secretariats, and reduction/elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers for environmental goods and services; Ministerial Declaration para. 31).

Negotiations on a separate track:

  • Dispute Settlement Understanding (clarifying and improving the DSU; Ministerial Declaration para. 30).

December 2001

Technical Assistance - Ministerial Declaration para. 40: The General Council was to adopt a plan ensuring long-term funding of WTO's technical assistance activities. Consensus was reached. For more details, see the Doha Round Briefing Series on Technical Assistance and Capacity-building.

31 January 2002

First Meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee - Ministerial Declaration para. 46.

30 June 2002

Services - Submission of initial requests for specific commitments - Ministerial Declaration para. 15.

31 July 2002

Textiles - Implementation Decision paras 4.4 and 4.5.
Council for Trade in Goods was to report to the General Council on calculating quota levels for small suppliers and advancing growth-on-growth implementation. No solution has been found.

Special and Differential Treatment - Implementation Decision paras 12(i) and (ii) and Ministerial Declaration para. 44. The Committee on Trade and Development was unable to report "with clear recommendations for action" to the General Council on the mandated elements of its review of all S&D provisions. Although the deadline was postponed several times (to February 2003), no decision has been taken.

Subsidies - Implementation Decision para. 10.3.
Countervailing duties: In the 30 July 2002 report submitted by the SCM Committee Chair to the General Council “on [his] own responsibility”, Ambassador Milan Hovorka announced that he had not been able “to identify any significant basis for a consensus on any specific suggestion by the Committee in terms of the substantive aspects of the review or with respect to any next step”.
Transition periods: Members were able to agree to extend the transition period for subsidy programs provided for in Article 27.4 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

For more details, see the Doha Round Briefing Series on Implementation-related Issues and Concers.

Mid November 2002

Anti-dumping - Implementation Decision paras 7.2-7.4.
Article 15: The Chair of the Anti-dumping Committee reported to the General Council that Members’ positions were “substantially divergent” and that he was “unable to identify any significant basis for consensus on a recommendation [...]”.
Article 5.8: Members found a consensus concerning ways to provide maximum possible predictability and objectivity in the application of time frames to be used when determining if imports from developing countries are negligible (under three percent) and thus excluded from dumping duties.
Article 18: Members found a solution.
For more details, see the Doha Round Briefing Series on Implementation-related Issues and Concers.

End 2002

TRIPS: Compulsory Licensing - Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health para.6.
TRIPS Council was to recommend solutions to the General Council on problems encountered by Members with an insufficient manufacturing capacity to make effective use of compulsory licensing. Despite long and intense negotiations, Members could not reach consensus. For more details, see the Doha Round Briefing Series on Intellectual Property Rights.

Outstanding Implementation Issues - Ministerial Decision para. 12(b).
Relevant WTO bodies were to report to the Trade Negotiations Committee - for appropriate action - on their work on implementation issues for which the Ministerial Declaration does not provide a specific mandate. No solution has been found.

31 March 2003

Agriculture - Modalities for further commitments to be agreed (Ministerial Declaration para. 14).

Trade in Services - Initial offers (Ministerial Declaration para. 15).

May 2003

End of Negotiations on Amending the Dispute Settlement Understanding - Ministerial Declaration para. 30.

31 May 2003

Market Access - Members to agree on modalities for market access for non-agricultural products.

Fall 2003

FIFTH WTO MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE.
Reports on full range of issues in the work programme agreed in Doha; including those relating to the trade of small economies; progress in the examination of issues related to trade, debt and finance; and trade and technology transfer.

New Issues - Ministerial Declaration paras 20-27
Members to decide by "explicit consensus" modalities (including whether/when) for launching negotiations on investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation.

Environment - Ministerial Declaration paras. 32 & 33
Members to report to Fifth Ministerial Conference and make recommendations, where appropriate, with respect to future action, including the desirability of negotiations. Members also to report on technical assistance and capacity building activities.

Agriculture - Ministerial Declaration para. 14
Members to submit comprehensive draft Schedules "no later than the fifth Ministerial Conference".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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